After the Fall by L.A. Witt

After the Fall was an interesting book. I enjoyed the horse facts, though I grew up around western riders, so eastern riding was a refreshing change. The average reader shouldn't have any trouble understanding the lingo used, especially since Nathan ends up teaching Ryan how to ride since he's the one who landed him in a world of pain.

L.A. Witt is an accomplished rider, and I was looking forward to this installment in the Tucker Spring's series. Her stories involve rich characters and intricate relationships, but are rarely angsty. For the most part that's good, but I found this story to be almost predictable enough to be boring. Additionally, the heavy story line about Nathan's friends was distracting though I understood the parallel in the relationship fear.

That being said... lust and fear drove the story's conflict. "I want you, you want me..." Both Nathan and Ryan are on the same page, but things changed for Ryan. I felt like the whole blow up at the end was a bit ridiculous. Ryan was never open about being willing to change his mind, that I could see, but when Nathan tried to explain how he felt, what he was afraid of, Ryan shut him down cold. Granted, Nathan was a bit of douche when/where he did it, and sometimes his 'I'm so afraid of being burned again' felt too girly, but Ryan blew his stack without even attempting to communicate his changing feelings.

While that might be somewhat realistic, people do break up over non-communication all the time, it didn't feel like enough to drive the conflict in the plot. Part of that would be the first person style not letting us see the changing feelings Ryan had, divorcing us from his growing love and then the drastic hurt he felt. I enjoy L.A. Witt's writing style and her character's snarky humor, but in this case the first person style really divorced me from the couple dynamic. In the end that led to this being a fairly average romance story that was good, but didn't make any great impact on me. If you love the series, or L.A. Witt, you won't be sorry if pick it up. If not... well, read more of the reviews and decide for yourself.

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